Building energy performance analysis at urban scale: A supporting tool for energy strategies and urban building energy rating identification

The energy consumption of the building sector has complex and interrelated characteristics. The development of modeling techniques capable of evaluating the impacts of energy-efficient technologies requires great effort owing to the variety of building sizes and geometries, wide range of thermal properties of building envelopes, variable occupant behavior, and lack of measured consumption data. However, energy policies require thorough knowledge of the energy performance of a building stock to be truly effective. In this paper, an urban-scale building energy modeling tool based on an engineering bottom-up approach is presented. The employed methodology makes it possible to assess the energy performance of a building stock, define energy efficiency measures, and evaluate their effects automatically using a geographic information system. Moreover, the modeling tool introduces an innovative urban building energy rating similar to the energy rating of individual buildings. The proposed energy modeling tool is then applied to a real case consisting of three villages in central Italy with 769 residential buildings.